Q-switching
In order to store many atoms in an upper level, the flow to a lower level must first be limited. Thus, stimulated emission must be prevented by placing an attenuator in the cavity to stop light from travelling back and forth (note: this attenuator is usually a light modulator, rather than a mechanical shutter, which reduces the amplitude or power of the light beam). In this case, for a radiative transition, the only decay to a lower level is due to spontaneous emission. When the pumping system supplies more atoms per second than lose energy by spontaneous emission, the population in the upper level can become very large (Figure 17).
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This operating condition is much easier to achieve with media that have a low rate of spontaneous emission. This is true for solid state ion-doped lasers (for example Nd:YAG or Yb:YAG) but not for gas (neon or argon) or semiconductor lasers. These have high rates of spontaneous emission so it is difficult to attain a large population in the upper level.
After a certain time, the energy losses in the cavity are suddenly reduced so that laser oscillation becomes possible. As there is a very large population in the upper level, stimulated emission becomes very probable and the laser is suddenly triggered. The flow due to stimulated emission is much greater than the other flows (filling by pumping and emptying by spontaneous emission): all the atoms stored in the upper level fall sharply, emitting stimulated photons (starting with the spontaneous emission trapped in the cavity). Thus, the laser cavity fills with stimulated photons at the same time as the upper level empties (Figure 18).
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Eventually, the upper level is completely empty. There is no further stimulated emission and the cavity will also empty due to the losses created by the output mirror (in general, the cavity empties after only a few round trips)(Figure 19).
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This process gives rise to a dramatic variation in the number of photons in the cavity (first by a significant amplification due to stimulated emission then by the complete emptying of the cavity at the end). The net result is the emission of a short pulse of light via the output mirror.
Generally, several round trips are needed to completely depopulate the upper energy level and several more round trips to empty the optical cavity so the duration of the pulse is greater than one round trip. This means that for optical cavities shorter than a metre (one round trip less than 6 ns), it is possible to generate short pulses of only a few nanoseconds but several millijoules in power. The peak power (the pulse energy divided by its duration) of these lasers can be in the megawatt range or even higher.
It should be noted that Q-switched lasers never reach a steady state as they stop functioning after several round trips of the light in the cavity.